On the 24th of June 2002 President Bush delivered his proposals for resolving the Middle East conflict in a speech.

The speech sets out the President's vision of a future Palestinian State. It does not contain workable instructions for stopping the present violence. The last paragraph of the President's speech, however, does contains an inspirational challenge, which, if taken on by the parties, can resolve the Middle East conflict.

This inspirational passage is:

"This moment is both an opportunity and a test for all parties in the Middle East: an opportunity to lay the foundations for future peace; a test to show who is serious about peace and who is not."

How could the parties respond to the challenge of that passage of the President's speech?

The Palestinian Authority should address the following proposal to the Israeli Government:

To resolve the present conflict between the Palestinians and the State of Israel, we propose the following steps:

The Palestinians shall stop all acts of violence against the Israelis for 30 days from the date of this proposal. This 30 days cessation of violence by the Palestinians shall be know as the Initial Palestinian Cease Fire Period (IPCFP).

The Initial Palestinian Cease Fire will be unconditional, in the sense that during this period the Palestinians shall not respond with violence to any violence that might be inflicted upon them by the Israelis.

Any hostile act by Palestinians against Israelis within that period will be seen by the Palestinian Authority as crime, and the Palestinian Authority shall deal with it as such.

Within the period of the Initial Palestinian Cease Fire the Israelis shall undertake the following steps:

Remove any restrictions on access by the international press and international organisations to the Palestinian Territories.

Withdraw the Israeli armed forces to the positions they held prior to September 28, 2000.

Stop all expansion of settlement activity in the occupied territories.

Remove all restrictions on the freedom of movement of Palestinians within the occupied territories.

Failure by the Israelis to complete the above steps by the end of the Initial Palestinian Cease Fire Period will be seen as proof that the Israelis do not want peace, but aim at destruction of the Palestinian Nation so that they could expand the territory of the State of Israel. In this case the Initial Palestinian Cease Fire will be terminated and the Palestinians will be free to defend themselves against the Israelis by any means available to them.

On successful completion of the Initial Palestinian Cease Fire Period the Israelis will have 15 days to formally accept the conditions of this Palestinian Proposal. These 15 day shall be known as the Israeli Acceptance Period.

Within the Israeli Acceptance Period the Israelis shall release all the Palestinian prisoners held by them.

The Israeli Acceptance Period shall be followed by the Frontiers Adjustment Period of 90 days.

Within the Frontiers Adjustment Period the Israelis and Palestinians shall agree the final frontier lines between the two states and the Israelis shall withdraw to those lines.

The Final Frontier Lines between the two states shall be based on the pre-1967 frontier lines.

Withdrawal to the Final Frontier Lines shall consist of withdrawal of all the Israeli military and civilian presence including vacation of the Israeli settlements.

East Jerusalem shall revert to the Palestinian State, with the Israelis having ownership of the Western Wall and unrestricted access to it.

On completion of the Frontiers Adjustment Period the Israelis and Palestinians shall proceed to resolve the issue of the Palestinian Refugees from the pre-1967 Israeli territories, by allowing the Palestinians to return to their houses, if practicable and reasonable, or by payment of a monetary compensation. This process should be completed within 180 days after the Frontiers Adjustment Period and shall be known as the Final Claims Adjustments Period.

Within the Final Claims Adjustment Period the parties shall also resolve any claims for damages.

On completion of the Final Claims Adjustment Period the parties shall conclude a Mutual Defence and Economic Cooperation Treaty, and Israel shall be recognised by all the Arab States, as per the Saudi Peace Plan.

In the interests of efficiency, precision, and openness it is suggested that the parties conduct all negotiations in this case by exchange of written public documents and give these documents widest world publicity. Written procedure will also ensure that the negotiations are not affected by personal antipathies between the parties' representatives.

Utmost efforts must be made to ensure that all the Palestinian Organisations know about all the steps undertaken by the parties and understand their purpose and significance and cooperate with the implementation of this process.